San Gabriel middle school boy allegedly bullied; Mom to sue district

The mother of a Jefferson Middle School student is suing the school district after her son was injured in what she calls a case of bullying. But others, including the district and students, are not so sure of her claims.

The 12-year-old's mother, Yolanda Martinez, says her son was bullied when he was pushed down a flight of bleachers during P.E. class on Monday. He was transported to a local hospital and was released later in the day. She says her son's neck and back are still sore as a result of the incident.

Martinez broke down in tears when talking about what happened to her son.

"My son didn't do anything, he's a sweet boy and adults that are around him see that. He didn't deserve it," she said.

Martinez says that this is not the first time her son has been bullied and that the district has done nothing about it. She has hired two personal injury attorneys and plans to sue the school district as a result.

"Everyone is different," said attorney Mauro Fiore. "Maybe someone can take a punch, and another person cant. In the meantime, we need to stop it altogether."

The school district says it did discipline the student responsible, but that it does not consider the incident to be bullying because there was no history of conflict between the two students.

"The district determined that the student was sitting in the bleachers where he should not have been, another student saw him there, came and pulled him down and unfortunately the student who had been in the bleachers fell and was hurt," said district superintendent Don Brann.

Student Andrew Orozco says he witnessed the incident and that the two students involved were friends who were horsing around when it simply got out of hand.

"He kind of like, it was just a little push, and the other kid tripped and he didn't stop, but it really wasn't like anything bad," Orozco said.

Other Jefferson Middle School students say bullying isn't a problem there.

"So really, this school doesn't have much of a problem with bullying, it's just like, you get into altercations," said student Christian Larue.

Martinez's attorney plans to file the lawsuit against the district for unspecified damages by Friday.